


Human

by KiwiWitch



Series: In the Spider's Web [2]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, 半妖の夜叉姫 | Hanyou no Yashahime | Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Dubious Consent, F/M, Human!Kagura, Implied/Referenced Abortion, Mildly Dubious Consent, ModernHuman!Kagura, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Content, Violence, kagura is the mother confirmed, this is how kagura can still be the mother
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26448211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiWitch/pseuds/KiwiWitch
Summary: The past greets her with open arms. Flesh and bone will not hold her hostage as the wind pushes her forward.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/InuYasha, Kagura/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Miroku/Sango (InuYasha)
Series: In the Spider's Web [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1526990
Comments: 25
Kudos: 59





	1. All the Way Down

Kagura only smoothes her face when she feels the ground beneath her feet, when she’s gently set down on the bone stricken ground of the well. Slowly, she opens her eyes. Sunlight illuminates the stone walls and vines grow down into the well. 

She nearly wants to cry at the sight of that square of bright blue sky over her head, framed by rotten wooden timbers and overgrown leaves. She brings her hands in front of her face, knowing with chagrin that physically she hasn't changed―flimsy human hands wave before her eyes. But that hardly matters in the face of what that blinding blue sky means.

Her heart is soaring in her chest as she climbs the rotted rope ladder out; several times feeling like she’ll slip or crack the weak boards, like she might gain a broken leg from the climb out rather than the jump in. Her hands are shaking so much that the struggle takes longer than it should, her grip unsteady, and her eyes stinging so badly she can hardly see her next handhold, but eventually Kagura emerges in the well clearing. 

It's the middle of October, but the air is warm, crisp, unpolluted and free. She cannot control it, but the wind is an old friend here, the reddening trees are singing in the breeze, leaves rustling as a cool gust whips through them. It tousles her hair, envelops her and squeezes tight, and despite the promise of winter in it, she feels as if it's welcoming her home. 

She takes the time to savor the feeling, relishing in the wind on her skin, she slides down the side of the well, sitting on the ground she leans against it. Her heart is beating too erratically, pounding in her ears as she takes it in. She tries to calm herself, be  _ rational _ ―if this  _ is  _ the feudal era, a time of demons and monsters and―but the elation thrumming through her veins is far too loud and all too human, adrenaline demanding she  _ move,  _ do something, rather than just sit in the dirt and contemplate the reality of what she’s just done.

Gently, she leans back and peers over the well’s brim, sees nothing but half buried bones at the bottom. If she lept again, would it let her back through? Or has she stuck herself here just the same as Kagome? The wind begins to howl again, and Kagura knows that she’s already made her choice, no point in looking back now.

Her heartbeat slows and she pulls herself to her feet. There is a well worn path into the trees and she takes it, the wind pushing at her back as she tries to rack her brain for any memory of this place. She vaguely remembers the well, only knows that it's near the village the Inu-tachi had always used as their base camp, but she can't remember how far or what direction she needs to go. Finding your way was always so much easier from the vantage point of a feather several hundred feet in the sky.

As she walks she laments that she's still in her work clothes; a pencil skirt and pristine white blouse, her kitten heels are not suited for walking uneven ground and her stockings keep getting caught in stray twigs. But her human feet are soft, just as unsuited for walking in the forest on an autumn day as her heels, so she keeps them on and doesn't care if her stockings tear as she picks her way through the underbrush.

It doesn't take long for her to find the village, smoke from the hearth fires cloud the sky, long streaks that emerge from beyond the trees, beckoning her in with the scent of warm meals. A few of the village women give her a strange look as she passes, but no one says a word or tries to stop her. The men are out in the fields, gathering the remainder of the harvest, while the women are preparing dinner or finishing with lunch, she doesn’t know which. There are children running back and forth between their homes, the older girls carrying younger siblings on their backs as the boys chase each other with sticks, playing samurai. She never took the time to observe human villages when she had been here, but she sees now how idyllic it all is, why Kagome came back for good.

As she watches them, she comes to a conclusion. If this village has survived this long, so carefree and happy, then Naraku  _ must _ be dead. It is a hope and a prayer, but also the only explanation for why this village is thriving, why the children are full bodied and sprinting through the rows of houses, well clothed and well fed. One or two of the women staring at her is with child, and in the distance the fields are bountiful. 

A woman passes by, forcing Kagura out of her revelation by her movements, hunched over and rolling a large pickling barrel in front of her, her hair slung in a low ponytail and the woman pays her no mind, set in her task, but Kagura freezes. 

She knows this woman, no longer a full faced teenager, instead a woman grown. The muscles born from hefting a giant weapon made of youkai bone have settled on her frame, and while the barrel in front of her is an awkward height, she pushes it forward with a practiced ease. And Kagura  _ knows  _ her― 

“Sango…?”

The demon slayer stops, turns, and gives her a curious look before steadying the barrel in a divet in the dirt, insuring it won’t keep rolling. 

“Hello.” She says it cautiously, and one quick once over of her clothes has Sango’s brows furrowing. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I know who you are…”

Of course, she’s human and the woman before her would only recognize a youkai four years dead. Kagura bites her lip, unsure of what to say, how to  _ explain,  _ if she even should because they were never anything even close to allies, let alone  _ friends, _ if her story is even believable enough to tell, if she even  _ wants  _ to tell her life story to the taijiya of all fucking people. 

She wonders if she would have second guessed herself this much before. __

“You’re right, I―”

Sango tilts her head and looks at something over Kagura’s shoulder. Kagura turns, a group of men, covered in dirt with farming tools slung over their shoulders is waking this way and the one in the front…

“Ane-ue!” A deeper voice than she’d expected.

He walks past her without a second glance, and Kagura feels the sting of tears in her eyes. She watches this boy―no, nearly a  _ man― _

“Kohaku?” He turns to face her, confusion and then a dawning recognition on his face. She covers her mouth to hide the wet smile spreading across her cheeks. “You've gotten big.”

And then the tears do come.

…

She hadn't expected the boy to live, truth be told. She had  _ hoped _ , she had sacrificed whatever chances she’d had to ensure that he would have a chance, true. In the end, though, Kagura is a cynic and the boy should have died by now. But he's alive and she can feel whatever remnants of bitterness leaving her heart; seeing Kohaku before her, an awkward, stocky teenager. There are pimples on his brow, masked by freckles, but she can tell, his limbs are a little too long for his body, all skinny lean muscle and one arm thicker than the other from swinging his weapon.

Sango is watching her as if she's seen a ghost, and Kagura supposes that's not far from the truth. She can tell the demon slayer is more suspicious of her than her brother is, her arms are rigid at her sides and there's a bend in her knees, her feet spread apart in a lax battle stance. Kohaku is still staring at her and there might be tears in his own eyes as she sniffles at him. She doesn’t like showing Sango her tear stricken face, but figures it's too late now, and besides, she's― 

“Kagura…?”

His voice cracks when he says her name, and she finds herself with a chuckle in her throat, laughing past the tears she’s trying to hide behind her hand and nods weakly, wipes at her cheeks with her sleeve as discreetly as she can manage. 

“Kagura?” Sango interrupts, folds her arms in front of her chest, but Kagura can still tell the woman is on edge. “As in wind sorceress Kagura?”

She nods, meek, but she meets the slayer’s eyes anyway.

Kohaku is stuck between them, maybe picking up on his sister’s apprehension, realizing that long dead youkai don’t simply return from the dead so easily. Kagura knows she’s not supposed to be here, knows that if the slayer decides the circumstances are too suspicious that she’ll have nothing to her advantage besides her word. It’s a sobering realization, that the tables have turned so drastically between them.

“You’re…” Sango can’t quite get the word out.

Neither can Kagura. Instead, she says: “Where’s Kagome?”

Saying the name so casually feels strange in her mouth, but Sango says she'll find her and abandons the barrel in the middle of the road as she jogs off, leaving the teenage demon slayer and former youkai standing there awkwardly. Kohaku is still staring at her, a mixture of shock, relief, and confusion flickering across his face.

“Stop looking at me like that.” She wipes away the last of her tears on her sleeve. As much as she's glad to be back, it's strange having the boy staring at her in shock. 

Kohaku nods, asks her to go back to his sister’s home with him as he moves the forgotten barrel out of the middle of the road. She follows next to him as he leads her through the village. Kohaku’s presence staves off most of the stares and she’s glad for it, but it feels odd walking next to him, her head feels a little light and her neck protests when she has to crane her head to look at him.

He leads her to a decent sized home near the village's shrine, he holds open the straw curtain for her and she steps inside. The smell of smoke greets her and she removes her shoes at the step when Kohaku ushers her inside. She sits next to the hearth in the main room, the coals slightly smoldering from lunch. Behind her, a thin screen to section off the sleeping area.

“You know, we've had a lot of strange experiences, but I think this might be the strangest,” he says with a nervous chuckle. He brings a pot of water over the hearth, moves the coals and adds more wood to rekindle the fire. He’s trying to ease the mood, but it only serves to make Kagura more uncomfortable, the air inside the hut is already stuffy enough with smoke as it is, she doesn’t need him trying and failing to be lighthearted. She watches him poke through the coals again, fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve. He’s nervous, and she doesn’t blame him.

“Kohaku, I thought you'd be…” The words bubble up before she can catch them, but she can’t finish the sentence. Maybe before, she wouldn't have cared, but now she can't help the fluttering in her belly, the worry over this boy's life. She’d been scared for him then, been scared that he was the last thing left that would kill Naraku, had known that his life meant more than hers, and as desperate as she’d been she hadn’t been able to bring herself to strike him down.

Even now, the thought makes her stomach roll.

Kohaku looks at her, opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted by the curtain being thrown to the side, almost hard enough to rip it from its bindings. Kagura jumps at the intrusion, and finds herself looking up at golden eyes. 

Not the ones she wants, but close enough. 

“What's up, Inuyasha?” 

It’s a gut reaction, nerves loosening her tung at the sight of the hanyou who’d almost killed her more than once. He hasn't changed, still a grouchy asshole as he stomps into the hut and up to her kneeling on the floor. 

She leans away when he bends over her, in her face, nostrils flared and glaring. He’s quiet, save for the grating sounds of him sniffing her, deep inhales and exhales. There’s dirt on his face and dust on his clothes, as if he’s been working in the fields with the rest of the men. She wants to shove him off but someone else comes barreling through the door just before she musters up the courage. He stands, crosses his arms and turns his back on her, blocking out the doorway with the expanse of his back.

“It ain't her.” He says this with an air of finality. Kagura rolls her eyes.

“Are you sure?”

Kagura peers around him, sees Kagome braced in the doorway. The girl―no, no longer a  _ girl― _ stands there all wide eyed and cautious, dressed in the traditional dress of a miko. The robes, coupled with the sunlit halo around her and the shadows smudging her face…  __

“ _ Shit,”  _ Kagura can't help but breath out the expletive, “I didn't think so before, but you really  _ do  _ look like her.”

Kagome blinks, the words taking a little longer to process, and then she purses her lips. Which only reinforces the similarity. Her hair is different and she isn't as much of a frigid bitch, but with the miko attire it is definitely Kikyou's reincarnation standing in front of her. Even Inuyasha seems to bristle at her comment, but neither of them say anything.

The girl sidesteps the hanyou and comes to kneel in front of Kagura, whatever irritation she’d felt gone in the face of a sudden fascination with her clothes. Kagome must recognize what it means, that even if she is not Kagura as they knew her, that there is more at work here than a simple possession or one of Naraku’s schemes.

“How…?” She reaches out a hand, as if she wants to touch Kagura’s sleeve, to feel the fabric and prove that its real. Kagura almost lets her, but Kagome thinks better of it and retracts her hand. Instead she refocuses on Kagura’s face. “I mean, how can this…? If you’re from…”

Kagura doesn’t have an answer for her. Like Kohaku had said, not the strangest thing that could have happened, but she can see the gears turning in Kagome’s head, the hoops her thoughts are jumping through to try to find an acceptable answer for why the youkai who’d tried to kill her, kidnapped her, terrorized her, and  _ died,  _ is sitting in front of her human and suit of all fucking things.

And maybe living here has had more effect on the girl than Kagura would have thought, because the next words out of Kagome’s mouth are the last she would have expected:

“What the  _ fuck _ is going on?!”


	2. The High

She tells them what she can. Which… isn’t a lot.

She tells them that one day she’d fallen asleep, and when she’d opened her eyes, and there was Naraku, a damnable smile stretching his face and informing her of her place as his new daughter. 

She doesn’t tell them why she’d been asleep in the first place. Only Kagome would understand her words, and she isn’t ready to open herself up that much. 

She tells them how Naraku had manipulated her, gotten her to do his bidding.

She doesn’t tell them that when she’d opened her eyes and found herself in the body of a youkai she’d been ecstatic rather than disgusted. Doesn't tell them how much she’d enjoyed ripping the yourouzoku to shreds.

She tells them what they already know. How Naraku held her heart, used it to control her, keep her in check.

She doesn’t tell them about the chains, the dungeon, that slimy, hulking, writhing mass― 

Kagura tells them―more like tells  _ Kagome― _ how she’d woken up in a hospital the day she thought she’d died, and has been living a human life ever since.

She doesn’t tell her about the day at the train station, the night in the forest, every excruciating night terror and phantom wound she’s felt since. About the things she’s done just to get back here, now, in a different skin. __

She doesn’t tell them about her family.

But she does tell Kagome about hers. 

The girl starts to cry, listening to the few words Kagura can say about her grandfather and her brother. Inuyasha is quick to come to her side, and Kagura thinks it's almost cute, the subtle comfort he offers. She wants to ask, but the blatant embrace, the girl leaning into his shoulder and Inuyasha taking her hand… Kagura assumes that things have gone well for them.

By the time she’s finished, the slayer and the monk have made themselves as comfortable as they can with the dead-youkai-turned-human-woman sitting in their home, and an old miko she doesn’t recognize has joined them.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing, a human soul being stolen and turned into a youkai…” the old woman says. “A possession is one thing, but…”

“It is quite odd, especially if, as you say, you come from Kagome-sama’s world…” the monk finishes for her. Kagura wants to say that before Naraku and the jewel and all of the bullshit that followed, there were probably quite a few things that had never happened before. Instead, she says:

“I told you my part, now tell me  _ yours _ .”

They struggle, there is a pregnant pause as if the air has been sucked from the room, none of them wanting to be the first to speak. The silence lets her know that they understand her meaning well enough, but it’s still several long suffering seconds―Kagome opens her mouth, Kohaku swallows, the slayer worries her lip―before the monk interjects for them.

He tells her, in stunted language, dancing around the topic so clumsily she wants to snap at him until he finally settles for: “After your  _ passing―” _

He tells her vaguely, about Moryoumaru, the baby, Magatsuhi, Naraku’s many machinations. Her interest piques at certain points, certain names, but the tale is slow going, because once he starts the others join in, anecdotes and clarifications at points they think his story is lacking, it turns into a debate at certain moments, seeing who remembers what. He tells her about Kikyou’s death, about her  _ light _ , left in the jewel shard that eventually spared Kohaku’s life.

At her side, Kohaku clenches his fists, and she wonders how heavily that weight has sat on his shoulders. Two more deaths, lives given up for his.

They tell her about… 

_ Kanna. _

The monk spares her the more gruesome details, she can tell by the way he pauses and everyone else averts their eyes, but it is Kagome who finishes the story of the girl’s passing. Kagura keeps her eyes on her hands, fisted in her lap, remembering the ghostly girl who’d betrayed her more than once. She’d never thought to ask, never cared enough, never wanted to know if they shared the same fate, and as the miko tells her tale she supposes that in the end, they did.

Nothing more than discarded toys.

She feels too hot, something pinching in her sternum, but the little band continues their tale and Kagura can do nothing but listen as they move on, the glass girl nothing more than a blip in their collective memory, forgotten in the face of the demon that had plagued them.

She knows enough to fill in the gaps, to imagine the grotesque monster that Naraku became towards the end, remembers enough to know what the inside of his body would have looked like, smelled like, felt like. She does not need him to tell her, to explain, and thankfully, the monk’s tale trails off, unsure of the exact end…

“It was all Magatsuhi, the dark side of the jewel, it wanted a new war to fight,” Kagome chimes in, her voice soft as she stares at the coals in the firepit. “It almost got one, too, but…” she shares a tender look with Inuyasha. Kagura wants to puke. “In the end, the only right wish was to wish it gone.”

And while Kagura never cared much for the lore of the jewel, the squabbles over it, she feels as if she’s known that to be true for a long time. Naraku had wanted for nothing more than suffering, but to know that it all had been the influence of some evil incarnate? Well, it’s almost enough to make her feel sorry. But realizing that all of his schemes and plots had been nothing more than a spirit pulling his strings is almost a sweet sort of vindication. 

Even he had been nothing more than a puppet, dancing to the tune of something far more powerful than he.

And in a way, his heart had damned him, too.

She doesn’t say any of this, but she wonders if the rest of them are thinking the same. The room goes quiet, this isn’t a tear stained, cathartic reunion―not for them. She knows her appearance is more warning than welcome. She doesn’t blame them, but the silence sits heavy on her shoulders as she fixes her eyes on the coals in the firepit.

Their discomfort is palpable, the way they fiddle with their sleeves, how they shift their eyes. She’s almost glad when someone new pushes aside the screen, but when she looks up she has to swallow down a gasp.

“ _ Rin?” _

The girl stops, a baby strapped to her back and two toddlers crowding her legs. Rin looks at her, searches her face, blinks once, twice, then:

“Kagura?!”

That the girl recognizes her at all is a shock, and Kagura is almost touched. 

From the corner of her eye she sees Kohaku flinch, and she’s a little insulted, he can’t be that  _ dumb,  _ but the old miko is the one who starts explaining Kagura’s presence as the girl just smiles. Kagura watches her, and she starts to feel a certain type of dread―or is it more like hope―it slithers over her skin, leaving gooseflesh in its wake. 

She swallows a little louder than she’d meant to.

“Rin, if you’re  _ here _ , then…”

The girl blinks, and catches her meaning before Kagura has found a way to voice the words. 

“Oh! I’ve been living in the village for a few years. Sesshoumaru-sama still visits from time to time, if you’re looking to see him I’m sure he’d be glad to see you!”

Her face heats even before several sets of eyes turn to her. Curious. Kagura desperately wishes she could still fly, because she knows that any stumbling explanations will be misconstrued, and she doesn’t want to tell them the truth of it. That she’s already said so much is like a bruise on her tongue.

Whether Kagome sees her discomfort or is too oblivious to notice, Kagura isn’t sure, but the girl changes the subject:

“So, Kagura,” she sounds nervous, “I know it might be too soon to ask but… what do you plan to do?”

What did she plan to…? She hadn’t really thought that far past her manic attempt at jumping down that damn well. If the thing doesn’t work, then she’s stuck here just the same as the girl, and Kagura supposed that Kagome is right to ask. Before, the girl had offered her a place among them, in the fight against Naraku; but now there is no fight, no reason to hold them together, and if she’s trapped then she has nowhere to go― 

Which means Kagome is either expecting her to ask for a place to stay, or is about to offer it outright.

Neither option sits well with Kagura.

She rolls her tongue around her teeth, knowing that she  _ has  _ no other options and with the question bouncing around her head, dinging around her skull like a bell… what had she planned to do here other than simply return?

“I―” The only thing she’s wanted the last four years, the thing that's driven her over the literal edge, that dances just outside her line of sight. She isn’t afraid to tell them, as dangerous as it is. “I want it back.”

There’s a pregnant pause, a few raised eyebrows, but it’s finally the slayer who asks her to explain what she means.

“I was a youkai, I had powers… I was  _ powerful,  _ and I―” she licks her lips. “I want it back.”

The silence weighs heavy. She knows that these are the last people she should be disclosing her aspirations for power to, but they’d tried to help her once, and as much as they shouldn’t trust her, she thinks that their soft little hearts might― 

“Don’t be fuckin’ stupid.” Inuyasha snaps, and―ah, there is the old bastard she once knew. “Nothing good ever came of someone tryna’ be a youkai.”

She can’t help the sharp laugh that leaves her. “That’s rich comin’ from  _ you  _ of all people.”

“Maybe ‘cause  _ I’m  _ the one that knows somethin’―”

“Inuyasha is right, Kagura.” The monk, interrupting with that sobering voice of his. “Every instance of a human trying to gain that type of power… it never ends well.”

Kagura bristles. “ _ I’ve  _ done it before―”

“Yeah, and look how that turned out.”

“ _ Inuyasha!” _

Kagome swats at her husband, to his complaint, but it’s the old miko who addresses her next:

“If you were Naraku’s minion you should know how it will end,” she says, not even looking up from her tea, “he’s the only human we’ve known to succeed in such an endeavor.”

Kagura bites her tongue. She knows as well as the rest of them―maybe better―what that means, what he was. But…

“I guess I’ll just have to be better than him then.”

* * *

As the sun sets the hut becomes suffocating, too stuffy, not enough room to breathe. She knows that with her little declaration they have even less reason to trust her than before, but being human grants her some luxuries, if only because they know they can easily stop her. 

Still, she’s uncomfortable, with the smoke, the coals popping in the hearth, their questions. Rin helps the slayer with dinner: cooking the rice, boiling the water for soup, serving anyone who’d like some more tea. Kagura finds it odd, that the feral little youkai’s pet she’d once been is now playing house with humans.

Probably for the best, given her circumstances.

They aren’t sure how to speak to her, the conversation is stunted, sometimes reminiscing about the past―if they can think of anything to reminisce about―or the mundane comings and goings of the village, a youkai Inuyasha and the monk had slain a few weeks prior, Kohaku’s training, how the harvest is going, coos and ahhs whenever the children demand the adult’s attention… There are questions she wants to ask, heavy in her mouth, but she holds her tongue, nods along with their stories, amazed at how well they’ve adapted to such boring roles.

When the children start to fall asleep Rin is the one who helps put them to bed, but it is their parents who cough and shuffle and Kagura isn’t stupid enough to miss their cues.

She finishes her cup as politely as she can, not sure how to say thank you, but judging by the nervous look in the slayer’s eyes she shouldn’t even try. She’s not interested in getting into whatever is lurking there, so instead she gets to her feet and says a brief good night that’s met with the miko and the hanyou clambering out after her into the night.

Kagura knows what they’re about to do, but she’d rather sleep out in the woods than― 

“Do you want to go for a walk?” 

The question is almost enough to make her flinch, but Kagura reluctantly agrees. 

The temperature has dropped, not cold enough to be unbearable, but just the touch of a chill that makes her glad for her jacket. Without the sturdy walls and a warm hearth the slightest breeze makes her flinch, and she hates that she has to hide, wrapped up in her own arms, from the wind.

Kagome walks beside her, leading them and looks as if she might try to link arms, but thinks better of it when she sees Kagura’s face. Inuyasha follows along behind them, silent as a shadow through the dark as the miko leads her to the edge of the village, her steps sure despite the darkness, as if she’s walked this path a thousand times.

Neither of them speak, Kagome’s lip chewing is nearly audible above the rattle of branches overhead. At some point the miko tries to strike up a chat, about the weather, current events in the era they come from, but soon realizes that the two of them are woefully uninformed, for much the same reason.

The conversation is stunted, but Kagura kills it dead once she realizes where they’re going.

Whether her husband knew her intention or Kagome has just been leading them both through the dark, Kagura doesn’t know, but she’s not surprised when the girl steps up to the well’s edge and places both hands on the wood, leaning over into the abyss.

“You said they looked well?”

Kagura nods. “Your brother was still in his school uniform and the old man tried selling me a cheap copy of the shikon jewel.”

Kagome chuckles, a wet sound, and within seconds Inuyasha is at her side. Kagura looks away, arms crossed over her chest, her ears swiveling at the barest whispers― 

“...if you want to, you―”

“...it’s not that, I just…”

“Kagome…”

Kagura’s eyes almost roll to the back of her head. She certainly hasn’t missed  _ this _ , and she almost turns away to leave, to go looking for whatever hovel she’ll be spending the night in, but the girl’s voice stops her.

“Kagura?”

She stops, looks back at the fuzzy apparition of Kagome, the moon and stars doing next to nothing to illuminate her glistening eyes.

“If you’re gonna’ do it, just do it,” Kagura snaps, wondering why the hell the girl brought her out here if it was just to cry at them. “I ain’t gonna’ be the one to check if it still works.”

Kagome makes a sound like a laugh, something between a snort and a cough, but she nods and gives Inuyasha another look as she steps onto the edge and he steps right up with her. It’s almost sweet enough to make Kagura’s teeth rot as she watches Kagome weigh her options. But then, as if there’s a weight coming off her shoulders, she takes her husband’s hand, they jump― 

And disappear into the darkness.

Kagura stares at the empty hole in the ground, swallows the breath she’d been holding. She guesses that it works, but there is still that tiny wiggling fear that this time will be the last, that the couple is now trapped in the future. Not a curse, for them, but Kagura’s done too much to get here just to turn her back on it now. To leave it up to chance…

Her mother’s face flashes behind her eyes, an image of her packing up whatever is left of dinner, and with a sigh she hoists a leg up over the edge and follows.

A kaleidoscope of colors nearly blinds her, but within the next blink she’s standing at the bottom of the well again, only this time with a roof over her head and dust clogging her nose, the square of light cast by a street lamp just kissing the well’s lip. She’s only glad that this side has a ladder.

The sliding door gapes wide when she reaches the top, alone, the shrine quiet save for what sounds like sobbing. When Kagura dusts herself off and climbs the steps to find the source it doesn’t take her long to spot the family reunion playing out in the yard. Kagome, wrapped up in the arms of what must be her mother, brother and grandfather between them, gripping her husband’s sleeve as if to pull him in, too.

Inuyasha looks up at her when she gets close, the rest of the family distracted by their joy, crying happy tears and too buried in each other’s embrace to notice.

Kagura watches, uncomfortable, indifferent, and starts to plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to updating this, not really happy with this chapter but at least i know where this story is supposed to go

**Author's Note:**

> Has this been properly edited? No. According to google docs, this has been sitting in my drafts since... Oct 2018, and its been an idea in my head for even longer than that. It would have stayed in my drafts for probably another year if Sunrise had not reared their money-grubbing little heads and started Yashahime. This is a sequel to my other fic “Skin”, but now it is also my #KaguraIsTheMotherConfirmed #ThisIsHowKaguraCanStillBeTheMother fic. You’re welcome. Enjoy.


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